Every one of us has a story to tell. It's the story we know best, the one where we know all the people involved, and the only story that we know everything we've seen happen in it so far. Yes, it's our own story. If we tell it, we usually have a beginning, then things happen, and we get to the story's middle. The end hasn't been written yet, or else we wouldn't be telling it...

Like any good story, the longer the author takes to write it, the more complex it generally gets. When I was much younger, I thought life was pretty simple, but as I've gotten older and seen more... Yeah, complex is what it is.

My wife and I were visiting churches recently, and I was paying particular attention to how people talked about those life stories. To how they would talk about struggles that many of us are familiar with: the depression, the anxiety, certain addictions. Struggles with family. Struggles with faith, or hope. And I noticed something they may not have been aware of, but says a lot for how we reach people with Jesus.

I noticed that when they talked about coming to Jesus, they talked about anxiety and depression being the "before" part of the story. "I was anxious, and then came to Jesus". "I suffered from depression, and then came to Jesus." Now, to be fair, they weren't clear or explicit about what happens next, but the implication was that the problem came to a resolution right about the time they gave their heart to Christ.

When we do evangelism and tell people about Jesus, we do try to sell it. But we need to be careful with the message we're giving, so those listening don't get a mistaken idea of what we're saying.

What are some things I could walk away thinking when I hear those messages? Well, there's quite a number of ideas, but here's a few:

• Anxiety and depression must really be spiritual problems (they aren't).

• If anxiety is my problem and I come to Jesus or focus more on Jesus, that anxiety is supposed to go away (could happen.... Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't).

• If my struggles are still there after I come to Jesus, there's something seriously wrong with me (no, this is normal).

I remember when I was growing up, and people in the church would tell their testimonies, the "cool" testimonies were always the ones with a night-and-day difference. "I was that, and now I'm not, because I met Jesus." Anyone could come up with the boring stories of growing up in a Christian home, figuring out they were sinners, and having to come to Jesus for salvation. The cool people had those decadent lives that hit rock bottom, and the only way out was Jesus - he saved them, and they left all those vices behind.

Of course, there are major advantages to not having that kind of background. There are things we were never meant to see or experience, and for some of us, Jesus saved us from ever being there to begin with. But I remember wishing I had a "cooler" testimony to share. I wanted that really powerful "I was."

Some of that mentality follows us - we try to craft and present our testimonies to sound cooler and make Jesus look better. I don't think that's always intentional, but we can subconsciously try to gussy up our stories a bit.

Maybe for some of us the mental wellness struggles actually were tempered or removed when we encountered Christ. And that's great. But that's not what we should define as normal. What's normal for many of us is that we continue to deal with these struggles regularly, even though we faithfully follow our savior.

When we talk about our testimonies or why someone ought to come to Jesus, let's be clear about what the expectations are. Coming to Jesus does not mean all our problems are solved. It does not mean anxiety should be resolved, depression changed to joy, addiction replaced with agency. It does mean that we have peace with God (whether we feel it or not), that our foundation on Christ is secure (whether we feel anxious or not), that we are saved for joy (whether that is our experience or not).

Most listeners will try to interpret their own story through what you say about yours. Be careful to be clear, and be aware of those wandering in the fog who will hear your words.

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• Photo by Roger Bradshaw on Unsplash